Hi, my name is Carl and I live in Michigan USA. I started out as a hot tub repairman and eventually became a Systems Design Engineer in the Aerospace Industry. I became disabled in 2006 and have been living on my disability income since, (btw the income is VERY small). So I started to look on the internet to supplement my income. I will have to say that I had no idea how to build an online business or a website or any of that stuff. I could surf the internet and play games on it but that was about it. So I started to look for sites that would teach you how to set up a successful online business. I would find a site that "guaranteed" success for "X" amount of $$$. I would spend months saving up the money and finally join the site only to find out that their so called "training" was nothing more than motivational speeches and pep talks. No actual steps to achieve a successful online business. Frustrating as heck and costly! This has happened quite a few times to me over the last few years and I have invested a large amount of money, (well large to me) and time. Some of you might be in the same boat as me and it is not a very fun boat I might add. But I kept at it and figured that eventually I would find what I was looking for. I figured that somebody out there was offering actual training to achieve a successful online business. I just had to keep looking. And I found WA. So here I am and I am hoping to be successful.

Welcome to WA. It’s participation and persistence to get there and also takes lot of creative thought to process...
Yes, thank you for following. And I am hungry to get started.
I finding so much information for goals to success. This is surely a great opportunity with just what I need to develop independence and dreams.
Yes www is a big world brought together with WA...

Hi Carl.
Over here in the UK I researched the home business market (I wrote a book on my findings) and established that over 70% of home business opportunities are scams or simply do not work. I have over 130 that do work including WA but for now stick with WA. One thing at a time.

Make a list of your expenditure, most expensive first. Use Google to find the cheapest option (yes I wrote a book on this for the UK market). I saved over 4 thousand pound a year on just my top 4 items of expenditure. Never auto-renew anything without seeking a cheaper alternative. Never buy branded products unless you have to and shop at the cheaper stores. You will save money. Possibly a lot of money.

Hello Carl, thanks for the following.
Hope you are doing well here in WA!
Have you got your website up and running?
I see you are in top ranking position, you must be good at what you are doing to get there, well done.
I hope to see you around,
Cheers,
Patrick.

Thanks Carl and I really did not have any idea how many ways you could mess yourself up just from scuba diving haha. Its freaky but yes I have to experience it probably some day when I get my sick pack back lol. Oh, thank you as well for the comment and it was gratefully received :-) .

Hi Carl, it's great to meet you and thank you for adding me to your network. I think many can relate to your experiences of getting scammed on the Internet, but not to worry, I think you are now in the best place! Good luck and all the best, but I don't really think "luck" will play a part if you follow the training and apply it. Cheers Mick

I think you have reached great success in the few short months you have been in the program. I picture you like a big passenger plane taxiing down the runaway and now you have some air underneath. You're on your way to higher heights and I want to follow you on the way. Congratulations.

Hey Carl, Thanks for the help earlier and thanks for the follow too. yup, been in that boat for sure. I started working for freelancers online and picked up all my skills I have now, then used that knowledge as an employee in bricks and mortar shops. That was backwards. So now I am here, working again for me instead. I have all the pieces, but being part of a platform is great, as the information changes as we progress in this great web opportunity and I always have a place to find out what techniques are being used.

WOW!, Carl we have so much in common. I was a carpenter all of my life until I became disabled in 2004. And the income is so far below the poverty level it's like they were punishing me for getting cancer. My disability came from a softball size tumor in my lower spine that pushed three discs completely out of the vertebrae and disfigured my spine. Anyway, I also decided that maybe I would try and make a few extra dollars on the internet. I had lost a little over $15,000 before I found WA. I have only been online and on a computer since late April of this year and it has been so slow going trying to build my first website. It seems like every move I make I have to learn it first. And everyone uses codes which I understand why, but I have to learn what CPA, URL, CSV, PPC, etc. means before I can do anything. I noticed that you are ranked #36. That is quite an accomplishment. I hope that I can ask you to look at my site because I am just about ready to get it live online. I finally figured out last night how to get rid of my menu that was on the side, I didn't like it there. So I have it on top of the page and today I am going to have a few of the menu items as drop down? from other menu items because I have too many pages. I thought a lot of pages would be good? But now I have a lot of writing to do for them pages. Anyway, it was great hearing your story. Talk later Carl, Sincerely, Roger Taylor

lol, yup we are similar. I would be happy to look at your site when u are ready. Just send me the link in a PM. The PPC, CPA etc can be confusing but it will get clearer as u progress through the training. U can never have too many pages, lol, content is king!
If u get stuck just send me a PM and I will be glad to try and help u. :)

Hi Carl!
I hope you're doing great today! :) I was wondering if you could suggest your top 3-5 favorite slide show themes? And if you aren't familiar with any... is it possible for you to refer me to another member who might be more familiar with them?

I am doing great thanks, hope all is well with u too. Sorry but I use paid for themes that have sliders and do not use free themes. I do not know of any free slider themes and I do not know anyone who does. :(

U can do a Google search for free WordPress slider themes and download one of them and install on your site.

Awe You're so nice! :) ....and ya know what that is good enough for me! I have my eyes on a couple of slide themes.... I just thought I would reach out and try and get some insight before choosing one. PS... I read about that Plug In, Called Meta Slider, thank you for that. Have an awesome evening Carl and thanks again! :D ttys

I am in your boat or was your boat...and now it has a leak! I went from 6 digits a year bartending, yes bartending!! I was living a rock star life, then I broke my back...twice, Life just kept going downhill from there. Lost my house, cars, cottage, dog, investments, RRSPs my wife (that was a bonus though) and I ended up on disability..yeah try having a life on that income! I would save up for a course and take a 6 hr course on how to upgrade to the next level. I just left one last week and found the WA last Wednesday. I now have a website I got content and am on my way. Wish I had the money to upgrade here for the $19 but I have to wait for my refund which I got from the last "place" I made sure I got that! I don't even want to make money fast although it would be nice, I just want to have a life again.

Yes, it is a shitty boat to be in for sure. My last back surgeries have been pretty successful and I am getting mobility back which is nice. They have also burnt all the nerves out down the left side of my back which has reduced the pain some which is also good. So things are looking up and the website is getting more traffic and I have made some money already which is very nice.
Keep doing the training in order and you will be there in no time. It sounds like u are off to a good start already which is awesome.
I wish u great success in your endeavors. :)

Hey Gunna (I know its really Karl/Carl/Kharl(the trendy version...not saying you're not trendy lol!)
Im getting myself in a bit of a pickle with changing everything over from Ros to Bella.

There's a few things I'm not sure about so wondered who you think might be best to deal with them if you cant ?

I changed my profile pic and user name but then posts were still showing up as Ros.
So I added Bella as a new user but for some reason I can't make "her" an admin , only an author.
Dont know why but its important as I really need to operate as Bella. I cant upload a profile image for her either so on my posts there's just a grey blob!!

When I want to log in to Wordpress now my password for Ros doesnt work , neither does the one that was created by Wordpress for Bella but the original Admin one does ?? I had a look in Manager and it says that my passwords have been synchronised so I thought that meant that there was one for all users but that doesnt seem to be the case either !

Are you still with me or have you fallen asleep?!

The other issue is that I need my email for Bella to be support@recoveryfromnarcissticabuse but when setting up Bellas profile it wouldn't let me put that in ?? Presumably because that's Ros' email but I didn't think that should
be the case because all users should be able to use the same email I would have thought??

ANYWAY ....one thing I did do (which worked !) was to go into each post and change the author from Ros to Bella so that eliminates that immediate problem of killing off Ros but still need to sort out password and email stuff .

Would have been easier if Id set up as Bella from scratch but too late now and Im NOT starting again!

Im not asking for community help yet as its all too confusing plus ive been sick and away from WA for a few weeks so baby steps to get going again!

Thanks for any help or direction you may be able to give me :)

P.S. Congrats on your Ambassadorship ! You're VERY important now so that's why I picked you LOL!!

I hate to say this but those questions are beyond me. I have no idea why u cannot create a new admin user or why your passwords are messed up. I would contact support for the passwords and they may be able to help with the other stuff too. As far as who can help I am not sure on that either, sry.
I would seriously try support and I would ask the community as a whole and see if u can find the answers u need. I am sorry I cannot be of much help but I have never encountered any of these issues. I have created new users and emails with no issues but it has been awhile and I do not remember what I did at the time. Getting old I guess, lol.

Hello Carl,♫Welcome! Nice to meet you againツ I wish you a lot of learning pleasure and fun on WA. Thank you for adding me to your network.

From the start, I have written training for every issue I had problems with myself. I made an addition for After The Walkthrough. Also a list of 1001 niche ideas, a checklist with 25 points to go through before you publish a post, 101 blogging ideas when you get stuck and an A-Z WA dictionary. I just love lists:) It has been very helpful to a lot of people. I have listed them in one blog you can find on my profile. It's the first website link right under “Follow me on” (click on my picture to get there). I hope to help you with those.

If you have any questions, please reply to this message or leave a comment on my profile.
Success building your business in 2017. See you around, Greetings Loes

Thanks, Loes, I have read most of your lists so far and found them to be very helpful indeed, thank u so much. I am happy to join your network and look forward to more great and informative blogs from u. If I get stuck I will ask, thanks much. :)
I wish u great success and good health to u and yours.

Hi Rodger
A pleasure to meet u. Yes, the beginning was a little rough, to say the least, lol. I agree that the support here is outstanding, the best I have come across in all the programs that I have looked at. It was one of the things that made me choose premium.

Hello Carl,
Have not seen you today. I bet you are working hard on your website. I am very excited for you about how nice it is. It's fun to follow your achievements. I am learning a lot from you. When you show me things I learn about something that would never have occurred in my mind to do. So thank you for including me in your journey.

I hope that you are feeling alright and give Molly a big hug from me and the 3 Husketeers!

Hi Carl,
Like you, I have struggled to find something to supplement my retirement income, which like you said, isn.t really enough to live on. Tried many money spending opportunities only to find out they were scams. Money I could 8ill afford to lose.. anyway, I finally found Wealthy Affiliate, which would have probably been the last one I tried.. I was pretty fed up. Thank you for the follow!
Kathi

Hi Carl,
Can you help me please? This is too hard to explain on live chat so I hope you don't mind me asking you here .
In the early days of learning out to link to other posts or to promote WA on my site somehow I ended up with a url at the at the bottom of my pages ...... and i cant get rid of it .
I tried to copy and paste it in here but it wouldn't let me for some reason(big red notice came up saying I cant paste that url in here !!)

On these pages there's nowhere for people to leave comments either so wondering if this is affecting it ??
It doesnt seem to be there on the post when its in the admin area but its there on bottom of all pages when they are published .

P.S. I was RosR but had to change to another name for issues relating to previous abuse. Feels weird but I had to do it for legal reasons. Bella Campbell is a mixture of family names from generations back so not totally fake!

I am sry I cannot help with that. But I do know someone who has knowledge about this and could maybe help you. Just send him a PM. His username is StevenEsser and he is a website programmer. So go ahead and ask him how to get rid of that code and the boxes.

Hello Carl!
I hope that you and Molly are doing alright. Just leaving a message to stay in touch.
I've been out a lot helping Francis. He's staying the same. Difficulty in getting in and out of the truck and bending. So, I am doing them tasks for him. More time together... and why not. I love him.
Maybe I be here tonight for a bit as it is a treat to chat.
Warm thoughts
Jen

Have a quick question for you:
What's the difference between the links in the links and tracking page?

I get the Main Link goes to wa.com and the SiteRubix goes to create a website, but what's the difference between the other two? One goes to a sign-up option that I've seen but what does the Create Account link look like?

U can view all of them by copying the link and pasting it in an incognito window or into another browser that u are not logged in with. The Premium account one is a signup for a premium account with a video explaining what it is and a bunch of info and testimonials and the other one is just another signup page that looks diff from the main signup page.

Hello Carl :-) thank you for connecting lol even though we've met via live chat and comments, i hadn't thanked you for the follow. (I see your comments everywhere, often when i go to thank others for the follow, you've just been there aswell :-D)
I wish you much prosperity and happiness

I have wanted to come by and say hello since several weeks now. But the time is just flying - so overwhelming with all blogs and the training, still. But finally I´m here - better late than never.

Once again thank you for answering a question of mine for a couple of days concerning "give and take comments".

It must have been very interesting to work as an Engineer in the Aerospace industry. I´m very fascinated by aircraft, flying and the space and universe. I worked as a flight attendant for several years. I´m not a pilot, as the picture of me might make you believe ;-) Visited Kennedy Space Center last year! Great experience.

I´m very happy to have found WA. This is a serious platform. Before I knew about WA, I experienced some not serious affiliate platforms too.

You are a publisher. A publisher is an individual or company that promotes an advertiser’s product or service in exchange for earning a commission.
So start again and let me know if u have any problems.

Continue following with the training it will help you with that. Use your past exeriences to draw from, you have a lot in your background. What is something you are passionate about? Think about that and then start writing down ideas. check out my latest post So What Is Passion?

Funny you should mention those motivational speech baloney sites because one of those led me here. I was signed up for a webinar but decided to do a little research. Found out I would end up spending a lot of money for nothing. During my research I discovered WA and have never looked back. I am very happy here and look forward to the future!

I was welcoming new members and your profile pic caught my attention. I will cross the street to pet a dog, so of course, I had to follow!

Although I didn't loose a lot of money in scams (mainly because I didn't have any to invest) I did waste a lot of time. It was actually in viewing a website on real estate, that I came across a review about that site, that led me here!

I got started just a month after you, and it's definitely been challenging, but there's no place I'd rather be!

I am trying. To. Get. Ssi. I been trying for a year. Now. I had a stoke and a brain injury. When i got rob on the streets i was working a temp job then. I am trying to work with. Wa. I got a laptop but i dont have the money to put on the labtop this a phone i am. On. Right now

I had to hire a lawyer to get SSI. U can find them online and they will work for u and take their pay from your settlement at the end when u are awarded SSI. With your injuries u should get it but it takes like 2 years to get. Mine took 3 years before I was awarded disability.

Hi Lazni
Great looking site u have there. Very well laid out and clean looking. I really liked it, great job!
I have left u comment on your iPhone 8 review. Great article and good information even with limited knowledge for now. I left my website info with the comment.
Thanks for the follow and I will do the same. I am happy to join your network.
I wish u success and good luck.

Thank you for the follow Carl. I share with you the disappointments of being duped into a promise of success through several so called "online companies". I feel your pain. WA is completely different. The founders pride themselves with helping others to build successful online businesses, they provide education and support. They created an awesome community, so you are never alone with the issues you might encounter. Welcome and I wish you all the success you can handle!!!

Thank u for your kind words. I absolutely agree with u on WA. The support and community here are just awesome. Yes getting scammed or a company falling short on its promise is very disheartening to say the least. I wish u great success to. :)

A lot of people have been sabotaged by the promises, and dishonesty of these scammy websites promising you will make a fortune in its weight of gold by applying to their frugal promises, and never ending fees that have stolen a lot of peoples faith in these so called fast action, money making website promises. I also have been one of the unfortunates from past experiences.
I have researched this website, and without a shadow of a doubt, tell you that this is the "Real Deal." so to speak. These guys have succeeded greatly in providing others out there the truth, and reality of internet marketing. I have heard nothing but good about Wealthy Affiliate. Hang tough, never give up, and keep moving forward, and something is going to come up that you just may have deemed as impossible. Regards-Jami

Hi!
Thank you very much for following me and welcome to the WA community! Be sure to follow all the training that is available on this site and don't be afraid to ask questions. The people in the WA community, myself included, are happy to help you. Best of luck to you in your endeavors.
Regards,
Shawn - Yearly Premium Member

P.S. Please check out my websites on my profile page to get an idea of what the Wealthy Affiliate training can do for you. Any feedback or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much Kyle. Your help and support have been ABSOLUTELY invaluable to me.

I am a little stuck on figuring out my own niche. My passion is helping people and sharing the knowledge I have gained over the years (got 4 different degrees), in multiple subjects, just cannot figure out how to put that into a niche.

For now I am going with promoting WA and online businesses in general (my site link is at the bottom of my profile page), maybe do some product reviews as well. Need to do some research on that first for the reviews though, lol :) I will be doing a product review of WA for my first blog though as seen through my experience here (which has been phenomenal!!).

Any help or inputs is always appreciated and I wish you success in all your endeavours.

I am doing fine thanks.
My website is doing fine I think. It is the first one I have ever created so it is pretty simple. I have only 2 pages of content so far but I am working on it daily. I am currently on Lesson 6 in the Affiliate Bootcamp course. My over all goal is to complete the training and hopefully start to get visitors to my site :). My daily goals are pretty small like do something towards my business daily, no matter how small, even if it is just going online and helping people and answering questions in the live chat. take a little action and be productive. So just keeping my goals small for now. And so far I am succeeding in that. I just got my site ranked with Google 2 days ago, so I was pretty pleased with that. At least my site is not broken - lol :). So ya ... my advise is just keep plugging away at it - you will get there! :)

Carl, I see you are making some good progress through the Affiliate Bootcamp. Just wanted to pop by and see if you need a hand with anything?

I also wanted to mention the success rates of Bootcamp. Absolutely everyone that has taken action on all of the phases of Bootcamp has a business that is generating consistent income online. MANY of these folks are going to be at our super affiliate conference next year.

I want this to be you and I want you to succeed with your promotions. So, please promise me that if you ever need a hand or feel stuck as you move forward, that you will get in touch with me!

Trust me, I know things can be a little overwhelming sometimes and I don't want you feeling like that.

Congratulations on going premium! I'm sure you are as excited as me to be part of this amazing community ! The endless training, the many tools and above all the whole bunch of nice and helpful people.... It's simply impossible to get lost or stuck in your business on WA! You'll always make progress =)

Hey Carl! Today I just wanted to follow up with you to see how things are going! I hope all is well and you are enjoying yourself here within the Wealthy Affiliate community.

I want to make myself available to answer any questions or help with anything as you are getting started! Please touch base with me if you ever need a hand with anything or are feeling stuck, I am here to help. :)

Great to see you over here in Wealthy Affiliate. I'm totally addicted and working my way through all the training courses. Right now I'm creating a new business, around my passion of personal development, using everything I've been learning in the training here at WA.

It's great to be part of a community of like minded people like this so don't be shy and start interacting. I recommend first setting up your profile, this way you'll get more interaction when you ask questions etc.

Once your profile is set up then I would would suggest you start with either the Certification Training for building a passion business, or the Affiliate Bootcamp if you're interested in promoting WA. Both are great courses to get you started!

Anyway just wanted to say hi and welcome and wish you all the success in the world building your online business! :-)